Portage remains one of a handful of counties still denying same-sex couples

10:25 PM,
Jun. 11, 2014

Written by

Andy Davis
Stevens Point Journal Media

A Stevens Point couple are planning a sit-in at the Portage County Courthouse on Friday to protest the county's continuing refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Allen Rasmussen, 46, and his partner, Keith Kitsembel, 49, have been together for 14 years and were elated by Friday's ruling by a federal court that Wisconsin's ban on gay marriages violates the U.S. Constitution. But when Rasmussen visited Portage County Clerk Shirley Simonis on Monday and requested information about getting a marriage license, she declined his request.